Lulu loves her family, but people are always asking What are you? Lulu hates that question. Her brother inspires her to come up with a power phrase so she can easily express who she is, not what she is. Includes a Note to Readers from the author, sharing her experience as a multiracial person.

Teacher attrition has long been a significant challenge within the field of education. It is a commonly-cited statistic that almost fifty percent of beginning teachers leave the field within their first five years, to the detriment of schools, students, and their own career development. There Has to be a Better Way offers an essential voice in understanding the dynamics of teacher attrition from the perspective of the teachers themselves. Drawing upon in-depth qualitative research with former teachers from urban schools in multiple regions of the United States, Lynnette Mawhinney and Carol R. Rinke identify several themes that uncover the rarely-spoken reasons why teachers so often willingly leave the classroom. The authors go further to provide concrete recommendations for how school administrators can better support their practicing teachers, as well as how teacher educators might enhance preparation for the next generation of educators. Complete with suggested readings and discussion questions, this book serves as an indispensable resource in understanding and building an effective and productive educational workforce for our nation's students.

Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers' careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers' voices are essential for understanding teachers' lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers' lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers' lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.

Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers' careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers' voices are essential for understanding teachers' lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers' lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers' lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.

Developing a more culturally diverse teaching force is one of the most important tasks facing the education system in the United States. Yet, in the midst of this challenge, little is known about who these teachers might be or where they might come from. We Got Next: Urban Education and the Next Generation of Black Teachers illustrates the journeys that Black pre-service teachers travel in their attempts to become educators. By looking at their educational life histories - their schooling experiences, teaching philosophies, and personal motivation - this book discovers what compels them to become teachers and the struggles and successes they encounter along the way. With texture and care, We Got Next helps professionals, policymakers, and teacher educators to understand what draws young African Americans toward the teaching profession and how to help them get there.

Developing a more culturally diverse teaching force is one of the most important tasks facing the education system in the United States. Yet, in the midst of this challenge, little is known about who these teachers might be or where they might come from. We Got Next: Urban Education and the Next Generation of Black Teachers illustrates the journeys that Black pre-service teachers travel in their attempts to become educators. By looking at their educational life histories - their schooling experiences, teaching philosophies, and personal motivation - this book discovers what compels them to become teachers and the struggles and successes they encounter along the way. With texture and care, We Got Next helps professionals, policymakers, and teacher educators to understand what draws young African Americans toward the teaching profession and how to help them get there.

Strong Black Girls lays bare the harm Black women and girls are expected to overcome in order to receive an education in America. It captures the routinely muffled voices and experiences of these students through storytelling, essays, letters, and poetry. The authors make clear that the strength of Black women and girls should not merely be defined as the ability to survive racism, abuse, and violence. Readers will also see resistance and resilience emerge through the central themes that shape these reflective, coming-of-age narratives. Each chapter is punctuated by discussion questions that extend the conversation around the everyday realities of navigating K-12 schools, such as sexuality, intergenerational influence, self-love, anger, leadership, aesthetic trauma (hair and body image), erasure, rejection, and unfiltered Black girlhood. Strong Black Girls is essential reading for everyone tasked with teaching, mentoring, programming, and policymaking for Black females in all public institutions.Book Features: A spotlight on the invisible barriers impacting Black girls' educational trajectories. A survey of the intersectional notions of strength and Black femininity within the context of K-12 schooling. Narrative therapy through unpacking system stories of oppression and triumph. Insights for building skills and tools to make substantial and lasting change in schools.

Strong Black Girls lays bare the harm Black women and girls are expected to overcome in order to receive an education in America. It captures the routinely muffled voices and experiences of these students through storytelling, essays, letters, and poetry. The authors make clear that the strength of Black women and girls should not merely be defined as the ability to survive racism, abuse, and violence. Readers will also see resistance and resilience emerge through the central themes that shape these reflective, coming-of-age narratives. Each chapter is punctuated by discussion questions that extend the conversation around the everyday realities of navigating K-12 schools, such as sexuality, intergenerational influence, self-love, anger, leadership, aesthetic trauma (hair and body image), erasure, rejection, and unfiltered Black girlhood. Strong Black Girls is essential reading for everyone tasked with teaching, mentoring, programming, and policymaking for Black females in all public institutions.Book Features: A spotlight on the invisible barriers impacting Black girls' educational trajectories. A survey of the intersectional notions of strength and Black femininity within the context of K-12 schooling. Narrative therapy through unpacking system stories of oppression and triumph. Insights for building skills and tools to make substantial and lasting change in schools.

The first of its kind, Teacher Education across Minority-Serving Institutions brings together innovative work from the family of institutions known as minority-serving institutions: Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. The book moves beyond a singular focus on teacher racial diversity that has characterized scholarship and policy work in this area. Instead, it pushes for scholars to consider that racial diversity in teacher education is not simply an end in itself but is, a means to accomplish other goals, such as developing justice-oriented and asset-based pedagogies.